Read an interesting article, here in Ontario we are unable to process all our recycled goods. So we ship 40000 tonnes of plastic to China to be melted down and shipped back to us as cheap toys and such. Much of this tonnage is comprised of the water bottles that they use to sell us tap water with european names.
Ever buy electronics? A tiny device surrounded by a foot wide span of plastic shell which is impossible to disengage from the product. . . .Instead, they should hire more staff at Futureshop or pay them enough to give a shit about theft and use smaller packages.
Some products seem to go through such a rigamaroar from start to purchase they end up with layer after layer of cellophane. Peeling many back, you think you’re inside, but then, individually wrapped components in the box as well- of course.
There may have been a time when the most successful capitalists were those that made the best products. Today, its all about the packaging; you have to use various plastic coverages for production needs, shipping purposes, anti theft, and product protection. Of course all these uglier functional layers of packaging need to be concealed by the most important layer of all, the glossy colourful marketing package. This is the one that really counts, because if you don’t want to buy it, all is lost. Point is, the package is becoming more the product than the product itself. Sell it fast, sell it again- only possible if you’ve got the coolest package.
Tags: ad, ads, advertisements, capitalism, capitalist, cardboard, cellophane, consume, consumerism, consumers, consumption, disposal, dispose, garbage, goods, market, marketing, money, ontario, package, packages, plastic, plastics, products, recycle, recycling, selling, store, stores, styrofoam, waste
February 12, 2009 at 11:04 pm |
Not to mention that half of the over packaged crap people buy is to fulfill some bizarre manufactured want. This era of hyper consumption is a vicious cycle of never ending dissatisfaction. Maybe people should stop looking to consumption for happiness – it just isn’t there!
February 13, 2009 at 10:06 am |
Its true. Another example of people being convinced of the exact opposite of what they actually need- all in the effort to enable someone else’s twisted desire for power. Scarfing down big macs and disposable cell phones are causing you cancer, destroying our planet and pushing the poor poorer, but damned if people don’t keep going along. Propaganda prevails again, and they’ve got it down to a science, an extremely pervasive science.
Try and go five minutes without seeing an ad that tells you to do something mildly destructive, i dare you.
“never ending dissatisfaction”, very Hegelian. We are in this constant state of negation, we will never have everything we desire. A better society would teach us to make do with what we have, we’d be a whole lot happier.
February 13, 2009 at 12:08 pm |
@ Studio Manifesto
“never ending dissatisfaction”
“You can never get enough of what you don’t want” or what you don’t really need. This has to be one of the reasons for hyper consumption including obesity
February 13, 2009 at 12:10 pm |
Senseless growth is a bit like cancer; a cancer with its root in the mind.
February 14, 2009 at 3:54 am |
The packaging seems more of a distraction. Keeping you from realizing what a lousy product you just paid hundreds of dollars for.
Fucking Advertising!!!!!!
February 15, 2009 at 6:18 am |
maybe bubble wrap? That has a little bit of its own value.
or a fridge box if you used it to build a fort.
February 17, 2009 at 2:47 am |
Some of my best therapy sessions are just time alone with bubble wrap. It’s that plop, plop, plop, plop…
August 21, 2009 at 5:22 pm |
[...] right place. Companies engage in planned obsolescence. They also encourage trend purchasing, and grossly over-packaging their goods to fit in advertisements and to market their products as greater than they are. All of this equates [...]
February 11, 2010 at 5:08 am |
[...] not just the price, but how much you’re getting. Take something like dish soap. The water and container aren’t of any use to you, so lets assume when you buy a container of dish soap you are really [...]
April 28, 2011 at 3:26 pm |
[...] good, or what is it we’re bothering to compete for? The elites have most of us working on shipping garbage across the oceans into landfills. Its so simple, doing things cheaply creates more problems than rewards; deregulation permits [...]
April 28, 2011 at 3:35 pm |
[...] good, or what is it we’re bothering to compete for? The elites have most of us working on shipping garbage across the oceans into landfills. Its so simple, doing things cheaply creates more problems than rewards; deregulation permits [...]